For my A2 production we created a hip-hop music video for an
upcoming artist called C.DOT. We also created a cross media package including a
website, digipak and the final music video. Hip-hop is a very wide genre with
many artists producing from many different backgrounds so this genre gave us
many possibilities to venture into.
The first theorist I have used to compare our music video to
is Steve Neale theory, he states that the genre in videos is created through
repetition, this theory provides the audience with an understanding of the
genre from their previous experiences. For our music video the main task from
our point of view is to make sure that the viewer is constantly interacted with
the music video their main attention should be on C.DOT, to do this we decided
to subvert to normal hip-hop conventions and use editing techniques and camera
shots that are not usually used in this genre to keep the audience entertained
throughout the video. We filmed our music video in many different sub urban
locations across London such as The 02, Shoreditch, The Barbican, we took
inspiration from popular grime artists such as Skepta where his video “Shutdown”
is filmed at the Barbican. As C.DOT is the main artist in our video it was
vital that he was centred in the middle of the frame throughout the video to
establish his importance. Even when there are shots with him and others they
are all placed around him C.DOT is always placed in the centre of the frame.
This is also seen in many other rap videos which we mainly gained inspiration
from A$AP Rocky’s “Peso” video where he is surrounded by others but he is
always centred to establish he is the main figure.
Editing and camera was a major factor to create and establish
the meaning of our music video towards the audience. By using Andrew Goodwin’s
theory that the start person being C.DOT is the most important and our editing
techniques established that by using many close ups and slowing down solo shots
of C.DOT on his own. As this is our artists first music video and potential
audiences will be very un-familiar of him we needed to ensure that he was
centre of the frame throughout the majority of the video to establish him as a
very important character. Our editing techniques very much went against current
genre conventions as we really wanted to stand out from the very popular genre
that is becoming more and more popular so we wanted to use certain techniques
to push our product to the audience. As an example from viewing Justin Biebers “Where
are U now” video which is in the complete opposite genre we used editing
techniques from his video to put to effect in ours. With camera work in
contrast we went very much with current media genres using a variety of popular
shots which are very much used in our genre such as many low angle shots with
C.DOT talking directly to the camera and making many gestures towards it. With
the music already establishing the genre and the camera shots throughout the
video we hope that our out of genre editing techniques really pushed our music
video towards the potential audience.
Using mise en scene which is a very important topic in our
genre as fashion and accessories is a big part of making it in the industry we
had to establish C.DOT’s different clothing and accessories integrating with
camera work. There props include the stereo typical accessories such as gold
teeth, a gold chain and also many different types of unique and vibrant
clothing which the audience will look to inspire to what C.DOT is wearing. This
is staying with our genre convention as going against it wouldn’t really work
due to the strong criticism in fashion in our genre. With expensive fashion and
accessories being very popular in our industry it has much changed from the old
conventions of filming in a poor area with poor clothes with lyrics of the
past. It is now about who has the most money and the nicest clothes so portraying
this through C.DOT towards our audience is vital.
